Exaggerating risk from bovine TB

AGRICULTURE Minister Simon Coveney was correct to defend the ban re the sale of unpasteurised milk in Ireland in the public interest.

However, the public statement from the minister (Farming, August 11) is factually incorrect when it states that the primary reason for the ban in Ireland is due to greater danger posed by bovine tuberculosis in Ireland compared to other EU states, where the disease has been “eradicated”.

It is disquieting that the minister, even in the first six months of office, would have made this comment in his press release. The Irish bovine TB scheme has reduced the prevalence of TB in cattle from 25% in the 1950s to less than 0.35% today, even though the numbers of cattle have doubled during that period. While bovine TB will always be a potential threat to human health, the surveillance system means that bovine TB is a minuscule percentage of the number of human cases of tuberculosis detected.